I entered my placement excited to begin pre-student teaching
this semester. When I first met with my CT in early August, I did what I
thought would exemplify my excitement for this upcoming school year. She seemed
very nice during our initial meeting, but did inform me that I would be
creating all of my own material and lesson plans with some guidance from her. I
would not receive any materials that she used in previous years to help with my
planning process; all of my lessons would be new and original.
Since school began, I have attended each of the T3 Language
classes for the freshmen and have assisted my CT with random activities
throughout the semester thus far. Before their spelling tests, my CT likes to
review by doing a Girls v. Boys spelling bee, and will allow me to pick a team
and act as “captain”. After reviews, I have also been allowed to give the
students the spelling test on occasion. I like this practice of pacing in the
classroom, and learning when I am talking too quickly, or am rushing through
the test with students.
I have also observed my CT’s classroom management strategies
frequently since I began my placement. She has a ticket system set up with her
students. During different activities, she will offer students the opportunity
to earn tickets that can later be used to “purchase” different prizes for her
classroom, to include candy bars, pop, extra credit, pencils, and other small items
that she tries to keep in stock for her students. This seems to work well
within the classroom, since students are eager to collect tickets and often
jump at the opportunity to redeem them for tasty treats and helpful prizes
(extra credit, pencils, etc.)
During my observations, I have noticed my CT using
descriptive language with students while teaching about the different parts of
speech. I feel that another strategy that would benefit the students in the
class would be to put together a PowerPoint or a worksheet for students and use
humorous images found online. This would benefit the students by helping them
relax during the lessons, and would help them comprehend the grammar lessons
easier than supplying them with straight text.
I am also looking forward to using short stories or novels
in the classroom. I hope to show my students the difference between bland
writing, and descriptive, vibrant writing. I feel that “breathing life” into
story characters would benefit students. Would changing the style throw students off and distract them for learning the material?
Although I have yet to actually teach my lesson, I am
actively assisting during each class period in any way that my CT sees fit. We
have begun discussing my first lesson with each other, and I look forward to
the day when I am able to stand before the class and take control.
Thank you so much Stephanie for you online reflection about your experience in you cooperating classroom thus far. I especially enjoyed the idea your cooperating teacher had with the ticket system so that they could redeem them for delectables or extra credit points.
ReplyDeleteAs stated in our textbooks, "adding strokes" so that students are able to visualize/imagine what it is they are reading can be very beneficial to students (and I think that it would keep/spark an interest in future readings). Your question was an inquisition on whether the change-up in style would throw students off and in my personal opinion I do not think that it would. In fact, I agree with the text by saying that it will keep students entertained and they will be more inclined to do additional reading outside of assigned classroom texts. However, because this is Freshman language course your cooperating teaching is probably focusing on the "essentials" in the text to be sure that they understand key components and what not. I took a course like this in high school in addition to a regular English class and we only worked in a textbook and on grammatical components.
I would talk to your CT about possibly introducing these sort of texts that "breathe life" into characters in the lesson you are preparing! ;)
Thank you and Happy Blogging,
Destinee Manns
Thank you, Destinee. I have been conferencing with my CT about my upcoming lessons in October during passing periods and have been trying to find ways to make the lesson more personal rather than a script I am reading. She has some great ideas and I am looking forward to taking control and creating my own lesson!
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